GRS South Africa- 2013 Issue 2

THE VUVUZELA TIMES

ALEXANDRA: 2Coach Potro’s Supporters

KIMBERLEY: 6

PORT ELIZABETH: 4

SOWETO: 3

KHAYELITSHA: 5

Coach Linda Talks GRS

Kimberley Runs HCT And Tests 242

Nike Foundation And �e Girl E�ect Movement.

JAMES’S JOURNAL: 1

PE Debates HIV

James’s Journal1

Leadership:

South Africans regularly complain about a ‘lack of leadership’ in our country, communities and organizations. And in Grassroot Soccer we talk about it o�en too. We expect better leadership from our managers and even from ourselves, but what exactly do we mean when we say that?

�is month I would like you each to think carefully about the comments we make about leadership. �ink about how you can support those that lead you. You can give supportive feedback, you can o�er to help and you can o�er encouragement. You can also ask for oppor-tunities to lead yourself. �ink about what role you can play as a leader and Make Your Move.

As we always say in Skillz: Know �e Game: Learn all you can about leadership. Build Your Team: Get support from your friends, colleagues and family and then Make Your Move: Go out there and do something a little scary and crazy to make your community, yourself or GRS better.

Each coach is already a leader in his or her community. You can imagine a place where chil-dren are supported and can live HIV free while avoiding the risks of alcohol and drugs. You can imagine a generation of young boys who stand up against rape, who won’t learn to use a knife or gun and who have hope for their futures. You can imagine a community where women are treated equally to men and can take a stand in their communities without the fear of violence.

South Africa has many great leaders quietly doing their thing each day. Find them, learn from them, and become one yourself. As you participate in development courses think about what you can contribute to the world. GRS will do everything we can to support you in mak-ing your dreams a reality, but only you can make it happen.

In April and May our friends from USAID will be meeting with coaches to ask you what you think is a good leader and how leaders can be developed. �ey will also ask you what you are already doing as a leader. �is is all part of something called the Young African Leader’s Initiative. Here is how they currently de�ne leadership. What would you add or change?

“Leaders are architects of positive change, able to transform beliefs about what is possible and consequently in�uence or alter the behaviour of others. We de�ne leadership as the development of vision and strategies, the alignment of relevant people behind those strate-gies (building change coalitions), and the empowerment of individuals to make the vision reality, despite obstacles. Leadership is not the province of a chosen few. Leadership skills can be honed and developed. Leadership works through people as they create and imple-ment a vision, for example, while at the same time it is in�uenced by cultural norms and behaviours.”

Email me at jamesd@grassrootsoccer.org with your thoughts. �ank you for all you do ev-eryday.James

James Donald, SA Managing Director

Alexandra2

My supporters, are you with me?!”, shouts a Grade 8 learner from Alexandra High School,

her eyes closed and her arms folded. Surrounding her in a tightly-knit cir-cle are her friends and fellow learners who, with enthusiasm and excitement, respond to her screaming, “YEBO”!�e learner then falls backwards, the weight of her body le� to be caught by her encircled supporters. To her re-lief, the circle is up to the challenge, bracing her fall and showing her that support will always be there for her.“Very good”, proclaims Grassroot Soccer (GRS) Skillz Coach Moses “Potro” Mala-bela. “Now you can see how important it is to surround yourself with people who can support and help you when you need it most. By building a team of friends, family and supporters, you can create a network of people that can pick you back up if you begin to fall down in life.”While Coach Potro expertly deliv-ers the My Supporters practice, one of the many fun and interactive sessions within the Generation Skillz curricu-lum for teenagers, his participants ar-en’t aware of the personal connection he has to the practice. For Coach Potro, the GRS team became his supporters in a time of need, helping him to real-ize the importance of building a team.

Coach Potro grew up like most kids in Alexandra, playing soccer on the streets from sun-up to sun-down, only go-ing home once it was too dark to see his own feet. For Potro, soccer was an outlet; a way to stay away from drugs and crime and provide him with a group of teammates and supporters that could help him chan-

nel his energy into something positive.Potro’s talent on the pitch led him to a sports academy at the age of 13 where he was able to increase his soccer skills. By the age of eighteen, Potro had been signed by Hellenic in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) where he would eventually receive various honors and recognition for his play.“At that point in my career, I felt that I had made it. I was in the news all the time and had a bunch of fans,” said Coach Po-tro on his blossoming career. “With all that fame you begin to feel that nothing can stop you. I began to disregard my physical health and started partying ev-ery single night, even if we had a game the next day because I knew that I would be in the starting lineup. I didn’t real-ize that I was beginning to let my team and supporters down by thinking that I

did not need them in order to succeed.”Potro’s behavior o� the pitch eventu-ally caught up with him. While play-ing for Amazulu, another side in the PSL, Potro’s lack of physical �tness led to a career-ending hamstring in-jury that caused him to be released. Now back in Alexandra, unable to play the sport that he had been a part of his whole life, Potro began to drink heav-ily every day, losing track of the things he cared about most. Potro was in need of a team, one that could provide him with the help and support he needed. �at was when Potro found Grassroot Soccer, and

Grassroot Soccer was lucky to �nd him. One day, Potro ran into an old friend of his who was wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with ‘Grassroot Soccer’ written across the front. Potro had seen people wearing these t-shirts in Alex-andra since the World Cup and had wondered what they were all about.His friend explained to him that GRS was an organization that used soccer as a tool in the �ght against HIV, doing sport-based activities to teach kids about alco-hol and drug abuse and other risky behav-ior that can lead to contracting the virus. As soon as he heard the words “alcohol abuse”, Potro knew he wanted to be a part of GRS. He realized that if he could show just one learner in Alexandra the perils of al-coholism then his heart would be ful�lled. Little did Potro know that, once joining GRS, reaching out to just one learner was about to become a whole lot more. Since becoming a Skillz Coach two years ago, Potro has graduated over 500 learners in and around Alexandra through his programs, an experience that, for him, has been a personal jour-ney to see life in a new and fun light.“I now have something to look forward to each and every day. My GRS team provides me with the support I need day-in and day-out. I also get to make a positive dif-ference in my community. If a participant comes up to me and says that I’ve changed their life, I know that I’ve done my job, changing my own life in the process too.”

“My GRS team provides me with the support I need day-in and day-out.”

-Coach Potro on GRS Alex team

Coach Potro’s SupportersBy Karl Alexander

Coach Potro with SKILLZ participants in Alexandra

“

Soweto3

There is no question that Grassroot Soccer has a variety of multi-talented coaches with interests that extend beyond their

work as Grassroot Soccer coaches. When they’re not engaging with participants in a classroom or on the soccer �eld, many coaches invest their time in other creative e�orts to improve the conditions in their community and enhance the well-being of others around them. One coach who has committed himself to the betterment of his community is coach Lawrence “Linda” Miya. Having worked for other organizations like City Year and loveLife, Linda continues to show his passion for working with children and spread-ing awareness about reducing the spread of HIV. Aside from Linda’s many talents as a chef and a DJ, he has started his own recycling company called Lawrence Recycling Indus-tries. Linda’s passion for collecting recyclable products emerged while he was a volunteer for loveLife in Soweto. While working for this or-ganization, Linda realized that in order to grow, he must let go of his turbulent past where he was involved in an abusive relationship as a child. A�er being inspired by his colleagues at loveLife, Linda decided to change his past into something positive. And thus, his recycling com-

pany came into existence. Linda says, “I had al-ways wanted a business and I had no idea how big it could be.” Despite some business failures in the past, Linda is determined not to give up. �e skills and experiences that Linda gained from volunteering with di�erent organiza-tions has shaped him into the person that he is to-day. “By collecting these bottles, I want to change the community and teach people the importance of [being] Eco-green and that we should attempt to save our environment. We should re-use, recy-cle and ultimately, save the Earth.” Linda even in-corporates his e�orts into the GRS lifestyle by col-lecting all empty bottles in the o�ce and educating other coaches about what they can do to protect the environment. As Linda continues to grow his company, he encourages others in the community to begin collecting bottles and recycling as well.

In the future, Linda hopes to study Business at a university in South Africa or abroad. He plans to further his education in order to expand Law-rence Recycling Industries to its full potential.

Coach Linda Talks GRS, And RecyclingBy Allyson Gittens

“I had always wanted a business and I had no idea how big it could be.”

-Coach Linda on his recycling business

Linda with SKILLZ participants in Soweto

Port Elizabeth4

March in the Port Elizabeth site consists of wrapping up the �rst quarter and preparing for the second. A�er the �rst ToC �lled months, new coaches have begun

delivering SKILLZ Core 1.2 and GOAL Trial is well underway. Port Elizabeth also began the year with a new CPC in Addo, Ntombi Jacobs, stepping up into the position a�er her role as the O�ce Administrator. �e change of roles and re-sponsibilities has provided challenges, growth and feeling like a larger part of Grassroot Soccer because, “I get involved in helping the site reach its targets and see the impact GRS has out in the �eld.” Yes, there might be di�culty understanding

the GRS lingo, though the �eld also provides the joy of “hear-ing stories from the coaches and the smiles on the kids faces.” �e site also participated in a secondary school de-bate about HIV and TB as part of National TB Month. Siya, the PE Programs Coordinator, gave a presentation on Grass-root Soccer and our work in the community and began with a “simunye” �e students who replied “sisonke” ended the debate with the �rst place trophy in hand. So what does that mean? Go through a SKILLZ intervention, win debates.Ral-lying together with a ‘simunye, sisonke’ the Grassroot Soccer students won the debate and took home the �rst place trophy.

GRS Port Elizabeth Welcomes New CPC Ntombi Jacobs, And Also Takes Part In Debate About HIV And TB By Barrett Martin

Siya gives a presentation on GRS In PEPE Coach Nowi during Skillz Street

Participants in PE

Khayelitsha5

On �ursday the 21st of March, a big, white, bump-in’ taxi rolled up to the

Football for Hope Centre Khayelit-sha and out piled 30 (yes, literally: 30) teenage girls. Jessi, Mphaki, and myself had recruited them from a nearby high school earlier that week, and (with the promise of free food) we had enticed them to show up one random a�ernoon at 3:00. And show up they did! Straight from school, uniforms and all. Jessi, Mphaki and I had recruited these girls with very lit-tle understanding of what we were actually recruiting them for; all we knew was that some folks from the Nike Foundation were in town, and had asked us to organize a group of 25-30 teenage girls so that Nike Foundation representatives could facilitate some interactive activities with them for 2-3 hours. Jessi and I had no idea what to expect. Mpha-ki was just excited to have so many girls around (us ladies have been a bit lonely without Skillz Street in 2013). But the main hall in the Center certainly was buzzing as we all waited for something to happen. �en, very anticlimacti-cally, a private taxi pulled up out-side the center and out stepped only one skinny young man, with a small bag and a big smile on his face. His name was Colman. He was to be our only Nike Foundation visitor and, it turned out, a Girl Ef-

fect representative. [�e Girl E�ect is a movement that operates on the belief that the 250 million adoles-cent girls living in poverty across the globe are the most powerful forces of change on the planet]. As it also turned out, the purpose of Colman’s visit and the activities he facilitated for approx-imately 3 hours at the center with our very special participants was to learn more about how adolescent girls in communities like Khayelit-sha relate to cell phones – how they perceive them, how they use them, what they use them for, etc. I know this might not sound like the most interesting topic for dis-cussion (I could hear the little voice inside of me saying: “I mean… like… they’re cell phones”. Instead as I probably should have been able to guess) it’s hard to imagine a topic that might have harnessed more energy than the cell phone. We should have known! �e cell phone… the most important ac-cessory in the universe for most of the South Africans I know. Here’s some of the awe-someness that came out of the ac-tivities that Colman facilitated that a�ernoon. First, in the group that I was in, the girls were given a proj-ect: to act out what it must be like to be a phone. Someone came up with the hilarious (and creative) idea to use colored post-it notes to repre-sent the buttons and, subsequent-

ly, absolutely covered herself in post-it notes labeled with numbers and hash signs and “okay.” �is idea caught �re rather rapidly and pretty soon all of the girls in our group were covered in post-its… even on their faces (see photo). Second, another group acted out a skit representing a girl’s experience of getting her �rst ever phone…. With the exception of Linda Jumba…. I didn’t know anyone could scream that loud! �is actress went all for it, running around in circles and jumping up and down. �e best part was, I don’t think she was exaggerating at all. Finally, my personal fa-vorite creation of the day: a�er being tasked with creating the phone of their dreams, one group came up with the “banana phone.” Exactly what it sounds like, this was a phone shaped like a banana and complete with DSTV and a mirror. Sadly, it wasn’t edible. We’re not sure exactly what all of these creative displays and brilliant ideas will amount to, but we’ve made Colman promise to keep us posted on any prog-ress the Nike Foundation makes with the info he gathered that day. And, of course, as soon as we �nd out, we’ll tell you about it in the next newsletter. Cheerio Chap-pies! With love from the FFHC’ers.

FFHC Khayelitsha Welcomes Nike Foundation To Talk About “The Girl Effect.”By Leah Brown

Participants of “�e Girl E�ect” take part in an exercise at FFHC Participant from “�e Girl E�ect” movement at FFHC

Kimberley6

With interventions running smooth-ly in 12 schools between Kimberley and Danielskuil, the KimTeam set

their eyes on an epic HCT for the 23rd of March.Our goal was to start early this time

around and that meant securing teams, venue, food, sound, testing partners, and most impor-tantly, getting the word out and mobilizing the Kimberley community. Some of our site sta� and interns hit the streets of Kimba with a he�y stack of HCT Posters, pitching our cause and selling our story to shopowners, taxi drivers, and anyone that would listen. A�er hours of awkwardly tear-ing tape and having quirky conversations with eager Kimfolk, we were happy with our mobiliz-ing e�orts for the moment. We soon moved on to locking down dates with Radio Teemaneng, our local radio partner, to broadcast news about our upcoming HCT across the Kimberley airwaves. We visited our good friend Malik Kau the Friday before the HCT and the Saturday morning of the Tournament. One of the Kimterns, Nora, who is in charge of communications, brought one of our CPC’s and three of our coaches to share their knowledge on the radio and advocate the impor-tance of Knowing Your Status. As a �nal push to mobilize our community the entire KimTeam was unleashed onto the streets of Galeshewe on the Friday before the big day. For about 2 hours our crew stopped people in their tracks, knocked on doors, and handed out �iers to make sure we motivated as many people as possible to come to our event, enjoy the great football and music, and most importantly to test for HIV.

It turned out that all our time and commitment that went in to ensuring that this HCT was one for the books de�nitely paid o�. A�er overcoming �eld challenges on the day of (no, we do not have a Nike Center, or a FFHC), the HCT ran smoothly with an incredible turn-out from not only our teams – 12 out of 12 boys teams and 3 out of 4 girls teams pitched, our best showing to date – but also from the Galeshewe community. �e Local Football As-sociation is supportive of our programs and our cause and was essential in maximizing our e�ciency on the day. We owe them a huge Kimba Kilo for their cooperation and contin-ued support for everything Grassroot Soccer!

Another gigantic kilo goes to our testing partners, New Start Bloemfontein, who never disappoint us with their deter-mination to test as many people as they can. �ey have recently implemented new restric-tions for the amount of people tested per tes-ter, and thus, had to leave early a�er reaching this threshold. However, with hours to spare they tested 242 members of the Kimmunity – who knows what we could have accomplished together if we made use of the whole day!

Our team in Kim is very proud of our consistent HCT success. We are ea-ger to see how we can improve in all cur-rent areas while pushing the boundaries of our creativity into new ones for future HCTs.

Fans, participants, and GRS coaches watch a game during an HCT. Teams participate during an HCT event in Kimberley.

HIV Counseling And Testing Madness In Kimberley By Nora Dooley

Graduation Stadium7

GRS SA Sites Target for 2013!

SOWETO: 9151

CAPE TOWN: 9000

ALEXANDRA: 6800

PORT ELIZABETH: 6000

KIMBERLEY: 5100

ORANGE FARM:1115Key:

Target number of graduates

Target number for testing and referrals

850

800

750

1000

900

250